Generally, fraud by employees remains a significant and ongoing threat to businesses as the effect of such has the potential to taint a business’ integrity, stability, and profitability. Therefore, in addition to the traditional view that fraud leads to financial losses, it is important to understand that such losses may not only be localised to the financial periods in which the fraud occurred but, depending on the type of fraud, financial losses may stretch beyond initial affected periods – this is due to the potential reputational harm, legal issues and operational disruptions that may geminate as a result of the initial fraud committed. Consequently, it is the writer’s view that the need to actively and purposefully address or prevent the occurrence of fraud should not be reduced to a compliance matter, but should be considered as a critical business priority.